Canadian rock band NICKELBACK has shared the official music video for its new single, “San Quentin”. The clip was filmed on August 30 at the Simon Fraser University Convocation Mall in British Columbia. According to CTV News, hundreds of NICKELBACK fans attended the shoot, including one fan who one fan traveled all the way from Edmonton.
“San Quentin” is taken from NICKELBACK‘s long-awaited tenth studio album and and first release in five years, “Get Rollin'”, which will arrive on November 18 via BMG.
“San Quentin” was inspired after frontman Chad Kroeger met a real-life warden from the notorious high security California prison. The song follows the story as he plots his clever escape. In addition to “San Quentin”, the band’s forthcoming collection will feature 10 new songs all penned by NICKELBACK.
Regarding why it took so long to produce the follow-up to 2017’s “Feed The Machine”, Chad told the WRAT radio station: “Well, we should have been making a record a lot sooner, with all that time off [due to the coronavirus pandemic]. But it’s weird to say this, but for 25 years it feels like someone’s been standing behind us with a cattle prod and telling us, ‘Hey, the record’s gotta be done at this time. We’re gonna tour at this time. We’re gonna do Australia and then we’re gonna go do Europe and then we’re gonna come back. We’ll go across Canada. We’ll hit America.’ Just like every other band that has to do this stuff, you wanna get a chance to see your fans all around the world. But with this, we were, like, ‘We’ll get to it when we get to it.’ [Laughs] And yeah, we took our time with it, which was just a wonderful luxury, to be able to sit back and [go], ‘No. I’m gonna play this guitar solo 40 more times for another three days and make sure it’s just exactly how we want it as opposed to deadline, deadline, deadline.”
Asked about some fans’ reaction to a 10-second clip of “San Quentin” that it sounds on initial listen like the heaviest song the band has ever written and unlike anything NICKELBACK has done before, guitarist Ryan Peake said: “It’s funny. We’ve been hearing that quite a bit. It’s actually interesting because I think NICKELBACK fans would know for sure [that it’s us once they heard the full song]. I don’t think it’s unusual… It’s a heavy rock song, and if you’ve seen us live, you would definitely get it. But I kind of like that people are feeling like it’s a surprise that we can have rock songs like that in the repertoire.”
As for whether “San Quentin” is representative of the musical direction of the rest of the album, Chad said: “All of our records are all over the map. We don’t have one record that really sort of sounds the same in terms of songwriting from top to bottom. I mean, they’re all all over the map, and I absolutely love that. I don’t know how we sort of did that and how we got the acceptance from our fans to be able to do that, but we’re very lucky because we don’t have to record the same kind of music thinking to ourselves, ‘Well, the fans are expecting this, so we’ve just gotta give ’em a whole album of that.’ We can kind of do whatever we want. It’s so all over the map, and it’s fulfilling as an artist to be able to get in, and as a songwriter, for us to be able to get together and go, ‘Let’s do something completely left field. Let’s try something heavier than we’ve ever done. Let’s try something lighter than we’ve ever done.’ Whatever we’re feeling that day, we just do it.”
Chad also talked about the lyrical inspiration for “San Quentin”, saying: “I met the [San Quentin prison] warden at a party. And I couldn’t believe how young he was. I was, like, ‘There’s just no way that you’re the warden of San Quentin,’ and everyone was, like, ‘Yup. He is.’ Guy Fieri‘s [American restaurateur, author and Emmy Award-winning television presenter] a buddy of mine, and I was at his birthday party a few years back. And the entire time we were talking, I’m, like, [laughs] I’m speaking to this guy, but in my head all I could think about was, ‘I’m gonna write a song called ‘San Quentin’. That’s it.’ And I stuck it in my notes in my phone. And then once the riff was down, I think I screamed out this line, ‘Can somebody please keep me the hell out of San Quentin?’ And we just took it from there.”
“Get Rollin'” and “Get Rollin’ (Deluxe)” will be available via digital platforms and physical CD format. The deluxe edition includes four bonus tracks — acoustic versions of “High Time”, “Just One More”, “Does Heaven Even Know You’re Missing?” and “Horizon”. Standard and exclusive versions of the album will also be released on vinyl in 2023.
“Get Rollin'” track listing:
01. San Quentin
02. Skinny Little Missy
03. Those Days
04. High Time
05. Vegas Bomb
06. Tidal Wave
07. Does Heaven Even Know You’re Missing?
08. Steel Still Rusts
09. Horizon
10. Standing In The Dark
11. Just One More
12. High Time (Acoustic) *
13. Does Heaven Even Know You’re Missing? (Acoustic) *
14. Just One More (Acoustic) *
15. Horizon (Acoustic) *
* “Get Rollin'” deluxe version
Amassing hits for over two decades, NICKELBACK is the 11th best-selling musical act of all time, counting over 50 million units sold and over 4.7 billion career streams to date. The band has released 23 chart-topping singles, with 19 reaching the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their undeniable success has resulted in over 26 awards, including Billboard Music Awards, American Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, MuchMusic Video Awards, People’s Choice Awards, JUNO Awards, and more. Among their numerous accolades the band has also achieved 12 consecutive sold-out tours, with nearly 10 million tickets sold worldwide.
Named the “most successful rock back of the decade” by Billboard in 2009, NICKELBACK is one of the most commercially viable and important rock acts of the past two decades. The four-piece, comprised of Chad Kroeger, Mike Kroeger, Ryan Peake and Daniel Adair, is globally celebrated for its career-defining and award-winning hits, including “How You Remind Me”, “Photograph”, “Far Away” and “Rockstar”, which all held top spots on the Billboard 100. Their success includes worldwide sales of more than 50 million units, solidifying their status as one of the top-selling acts of all time and the second best-selling foreign act in the USA in the 2000’s decade, behind only THE BEATLES. Their inescapable, irresistible smash “How You Remind Me” was named Billboard‘s “Top Rock Song Of The Decade”. It was the number-one most played song on U.S. radio (any format) in the 2000s decade according to Nielsen Soundscan, with over 1.2 million spins.
Amongst all these accolades, they’ve also been named Billboard‘s “Top Rock Group Of The Decade” and received nine Grammy Award nominations, three American Music Awards, a World Music Award, a People’s Choice Award, twelve JUNO Awards, seven MuchMusic Video Awards, and have been inducted into Canada’s Walk Of Fame (2007). With more than 23 chart-topping singles and fans spanning the globe, NICKELBACK boasts twelve consecutive sold-out world tours, playing to well over 10 million diehard and adoring fans.
Mick Lite served for 12 years in the military and is now an entrepreneur and photographer. Has worked as the official scorer and social media manager for the River City Rascals, Statistician for the Missouri Monsters and St. Louis Attack arena football teams, and as the Team Photographer and social media consultant for the St. Charles Chill, SLU Hockey, St. Louis Slam, and Gateway Grizzlies.
